Cathal Goulding, Irish political activist who became chief of staff of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in 1962 and whose relatively moderate stance helped trigger the 1969 split between his Official IRA, which called a cease-fire in 1972, and the more militant Provisional IRA (b. Dec. 30, 1922, Dublin, Ire.--d. Dec. 26, 1998, Dublin).

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Irish politician and patriot, who served as taoiseach (prime minister; 1932–48, 1951–54, 1957–59) and president (1959–73) of Ireland. An active revolutionary from 1913, he became president of Sinn Féin in 1917 and founded the Fianna Fáil party in 1926. In 1937 he made his country a “sovereign” state, renamed Ireland, or Éire. His academic attainments...

lawyer who became the first great 19th-century Irish nationalist leader. Compelled to leave the Roman Catholic college at Douai, France, when the French Revolution broke out, O’Connell went to London to study law, and in 1798 he was called to the Irish bar. His forensic skill enabled him to use the courts as nationalist forums. Although he had joined...

Irish statesman, who was the first president of the Executive Council (prime minister; 1922–32) of the Irish Free State. At an early age, Cosgrave was attracted to the Irish nationalist party Sinn Féin. He became a member of the Dublin Corporation in 1909 and was subsequently reelected to represent Sinn Féin interests. He joined the Irish Volunteers...